1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for actuation of a head restraint, and in particular, the present invention relates to a system and method for actuation of a head restraint using an infrared proximity detector.
2. Background Art
In many vehicles today, head restraints are provided not just for the front row passengers, but are also provided for passengers sitting in second and third row seats. When a second or third row seat is unoccupied, it may be desirable to have the associated head restraint folded down, or otherwise lowered, to reduce obstructions to the driver's view through the rear window. Passengers in a third row of seats may also prefer to have one or more head restraints in the second row lowered to improve their forward view.
Previous attempts at providing folding head restraints require either manual actuation of the head restraint—which precludes the driver from folding down the head restraint while operating the vehicle—or remote actuation of all of the head restraints in the rear seats. This may be inconvenient, particularly if one or more of the rear seats is occupied. In addition, the remotely located switch used to actuate the rear head restraints may not be located in a convenient position. For example, if such a switch is located on the vehicle dashboard or center console, the driver may look in the rearview mirror, determine that at least one of the rear head restraints needs to be lowered, and then seek the switch on the dashboard to fold the head restraints. Such a system is somewhat self-defeating, since the goal is to improve rearward visibility, and yet the system requires that the driver look forward at the dashboard to find the actuating switch.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system and method for remote head restraint actuation, where the actuating sensors are visible to the driver while the driver is looking in the rearview mirror. In addition, it would also be desirable to have a system and method for remote head restraint actuation that allows for selective, independent actuation of individual head restraints.